A female name. this is Old French amée, mod French aimée, p. part. of the verb aimer, ‘to love’. In England it was sometimes latinized as Amata more often as Amia. Promptorium Parvulorum (c. 1440) gives Amye as the English. Amia as the Latin form. There was a 13th-C St Amata of Bologna who may have helped to popularize the name, which does not seem to occur before about 1270. It was sometimes confused with Amice (q.v.). The best-known bearer of the name was the ill-fated wife of Robert Earl of Leicester, Amy Robsart, but it was not uncommon in the 17th C. Lyford 1655 gives both Amata and Aimie. It seems to have fallen out of use in the 18th C, and its return to favour in the 19th C may have been due to the popularity of Kenilworth (1821), and later The Heir of Redclyffe (1853).

Amya Hundred Rolls 1273, Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379, Feudal Aids 1346. Amia Testa de Neville, or Book of Fees, temp. Hen. III-Edw. I 13th C.

Though somewhat under a cloud, Amy is ‘not to be sneezed at’: if one remembers its origin—Fr. Aimée, from Latin amata (a woman beloved)—it’ assumes a vesture of beauty or, at the least, of charm. Amanda and Amoret, fanciful cognates harlot-bedizened, have gone the rapid way of the meretricious; simple Amy remains.

Some derive this name from Fr. aimée, beloved; others from amie, a friend. It is found Latinised both Amata and Amicia.

Latin (feminine) - Beloved.